Halston

CREDITED as being America's first internationally renowned designer, Roy Halston Frowick put US fashion on the global map with his eponymous label Halston - a label famous for its glittering dresses, worn by style icons from Elizabeth Taylor to Jackie Kennedy. Halston himself became as well known as the clothes he designed, with his Studio 54 antics and famous friends becoming synonymous with wild Seventies New York nightlife.

Roy Halston Frowick was born on April 23 1932, in Des Moines, Iowa.

He started designing from a young age, after his mother taught him to sew and began creating hats for his sister. His family called him by his middle name, Halston, to avoid confusion with his Uncle Roy.

Frowick graduated from high school in 1950, before heading to Indiana University for one semester. In 1952 he left for Chicago, enrolling at a night school course the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

The designer first became known for making hats. In 1957 he opened his first dedicated hat store on the Boulevard Salon on North Michigan Avenue, Chicago. It was at this point he started using his middle name instead of his first name in a professional capacity as well.

In 1957, he moved to New York to work first for Lily Dache and then as a milliner for high end US department store Bergdorf Goodman.

He first became an internationally renowned name when he created the pillbox hat Jackie Kennedy wore for her husband's inauguration in 1961.

He went onto launch his womenswear label in 1968 - worn by ahost of glamorous women including Elizabeth Taylor, Pat Cleveland,Anjelica Huston, Bianca Jagger and Liza Minnelli. They were allfans of his glittering yet simple looks. "Halston inventedminimalism - that one note look. To Halston less was more," said USVogue contributing editor Andre Leon Talley in Halstondocumentary Ultrasuede: In Search Of Halston.

Halston never underestimated the power of having his work worn by such a high-profile following. "You are as good as the people you dress," he once said. "Beautiful people attract attention; they are your best advertisement."

Beautiful women aside, Halston surrounded himself with NewYork's most influential and fashionable names, from Truman Capoteto Andy Warhol. "I remember sitting with Halston and Andy, andHalston would throw Andy's cash into his fireplace," recalledphotographer Christopher Makos in new documentary Ultrasuede: In Search of Halston. "He'd sit there laughingas Andy burnt his fingers trying to pull his notes out of thefire."

With a brigade of Halstonettes (the term given to his model followers), Halston himself would regularly be seen partying at Studio 54. Other evenings were spent hosting dinner parties at his glamorous two-floor New York house, attended by the city's most beautiful and chic young things.

As well as designing his ready-to-wear label, Halston also created uniforms for the Girl Scouts, Braniff airlines and the New York police department. In 1976 he made the kit for the US Olympic team.

In 1983, he collaborated with US high street chain JC Penny, a controversial move that eventually led to his decrease in popularity. The line, which featured $200 dresses (£129) and $49 shirts (£31), didn't sell and many thought devalued his ready-to-wear collection. Bergdorf Goodman consequently dropped Halston's mainline. A year later the designer lost the rights to his name and company. "We all make mistakes - sometimes you associate with the wrong names - his was working with JC Penney: he never recovered from that," said Diane von Furstenberg. "He lost his heart I think. He became part of that Seventies phenomenon - you know, abuse."

Halston's drinking, drug-taking and wild partying started to overflow into his days, as well as is nights - many of his closet friends became concerned for his well-being. "He became more interested in what he was putting in his body than what he was doing with it," said one of the designer's models Anjelica Houston. His demise had a Byronesque-Rimbaud quality to it. It was about being young and doing everything you shouldn't. The nights got longer and the mornings got harder for him. It was romantic in a way."

In 1990, at the age of 57, Halston died of lung cancer, complicated by AIDS. "He never said he was going to die," recalled close friend Liza Minnelli. "He was like a brother to me. When he died, I went nuts - I went into such a depression. It's hard to say goodbye to someone when you're not supposed to. He was so young."

Since his death, the Halston label has been reinvented by a number of owners and designers - none of which lasted long, until Harvey Weinstein followed advice from stylist Rachel Zoe and bought the label along with Jimmy Choo founder Tamara Mellon in March 2007. Marios Schwab was appointed creative director in May 2009.

In 2009, Halston launched a diffusion line - Halston Heritage,of which Sarah Jessica Parker was made president and chief creativeofficer in January 2010. However, it emerged in July 2010 thatParker, Weinstein and Schwab were no longer working at either ofHalston's label. "Really the business was being taken in adirection I wasn't interested in pursuing," Parker told us inAugust 2011. "That's why Harvey [Weinstein] and I decided to leavethe company. I don't regret my time there." No successor has yetbeen appointed.